Pressure vessel



Nov. 29, 1968 J, MERCER ETAL 3,288,168

PRESSURE VESSEL Filed Nov. 16, 1964 INVENTO R5 A75 M E1? 6' 4 1? JdCQl/Fj M5705? BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofitice 3,288,168 Patented Nov. 29, 1966 3,288,168 PRESSURE VESSEL Jean Mercier and Jacques H. Mercier, New York, N.Y.;

said Jacques H. Mercier assignor to Mercier Olaer Patent Corporation, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 411,313 1 Claim. (Cl. 138-30) This inention relates to the art of pressure vessels of the type having a deform-able partition intervening between the gas and oil port thereof and more particularly to the mount for said partition.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide a pressure vessel of the above type which may readily be fabricated at relatively low cost and may readily be assembled with assurance that a dependable seal will be provided to prevent leakage of both the oil and gas in the pressure vessel even with long continuous use thereof.

According to the invention, t-hese objcts are accomplished by the arrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described and more particularly recited in the claims.

This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application Serial No. 317,584, filed June 1, 1964.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the pressure vessel according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a detail view of the periphery of the deformable partition, and

FIG. 3 is a detail view of the periphery of the partition mounted on the closure member before it is positioned in the container of the pressure vessel.

Referring now to the drawings, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the pressure vessel comprises a container 11 of strong, rigid material such as steel or aluminum capable of withstanding the pressure to which the unit is subjected. The container is cylindrical along the major portion of the body thereof and has a hemispherical end 12 which has an opening 13 in which an outlet member 14 is mounted having a port 15 through which fluid such as oil under pressure may flow.

The cylindrical portion of the container 11 at the mouth thereof is of larger diameter than the main body of the container, defining a curved shoulder 16. The mouth of the container 11 is designed to be closed by a substantially cup-shaped cover member 17 which as shown in FIG. 1 has an axial opening 18 designed to receive a suitable air connection '(not shown).

The side wall 19 of the cover member 17 defines a substantially cylindrical portion adapted to fit into the cylindrical mouth of the container 11.

As shown in FIG. 1, the outer periphery of the cover member is curved in vertical cross section as at 20 so that it may seat on the correspondingly curved shoulder 16 of the container. The portion 19a of said cylindrical portion 19 is of outer diameter substantially the same as the inner diameter of the container adjacent the curved shoulder 16 thereof so that it will fit snugly therein to center the cover member in the container. The lower portion 19b of cylindrical portion 19 is of outer diameter less than the inner diameter of the container to define a space therebetween to receive the periphery of a deformable partition 22.

The partition 22 illustratively is a collapsible and expansible bladder having an enlarged mouth and which desirably is of resilient material such as rubber or synthetic plastic of like physical characteristic. The bladder defines two chambers in the pressure vessel, i.e., an oil chamber 23 which is in communication with the passageway 15 through the outlet member 14 and a gas chamber 25 which is in communication with the opening 18.

The mouth of the bladder 22 on the inner surface thereof has an annular bead 27, formed integral therewith. As is clearly shown in FIG. 2, the outer surface of the bladder 22 has an annular outwardly extending flange 31 of length substantially equal to one-half the length of the head 27 with the lower surface of the flnage 31 defining substantially a right angle as at 32 with respect to the adjacent wall surface 33 of the bladder, the lower corner of flange 31 being rounded as at 31.

In order to support the bladder 22, the lower cyclindrical portion 19b of the cover member has an annular groove 34 in its outer surface in which the annular bead 27 is positioned.

As is clearly shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the groove 34 is of depth slightly less than the transverse thickness of the head 27 at the flange portion 31 thereof for the purpose hereinafter to be described.

The bead 27 is of traverse thickness such that when the bladder 22 is mounted on the cover member 17 with the bead 27 positioned in groove 34, prior to insertion of the cover member and bladder 22 into the container, as shown in FIG. 3, the outer wall surface 33 of the bladder will extend transversely beyond the cylindrical portion 19a of the cover member 17. In addition, the annular flange 31 will also extend outwardly beyond the wall surface 33.

With the taerange-ment above described, when the depending portion 19) of the cover member 17 with the bladder 22 mounted thereon is forced into the container 11 until the rounded portion 20 of the cover member 17 is against the curved shoulder 16, it is apparent that the bead 27 will be transversely compressed, the rounded corner 31' of flange 31 facilitating assembly of the unit without damage to the flange 31. The cover member 17 is secured in position by bending ove-r'the rim 41 of the container from the position shown in broken lines in FIG. 1 to the position shown in full lines.

With the cover member 17 so mounted, the head 27 will be compressed into groove 34 and since the transverse thickness of the head 27 at the flange portion 31 thereof is slightly greater than the depth of the groove 34, such flange 31 which extends beyond the outer surface 33 of the bladder, will be compressed even more than the portion 27 of bead 27 inwardly thereof creating a sharply defined annular region 46 at the lower edge of flange 31.

By reason of the compression of the flange portion 31 of the bead 27, the bead 27 will be pressed tightly against the junction between the top wall 36 of groove 34 and the adjacent wall of container 11 to wedge into such junction and will therefore ensure a good seal even at very low pressure.

In operation of the pressure vessel, the gas chamber 25 defined by the bladder 22 is charged with gas under pressure and then the oil chamber 23 is charged with oil under pressure greater than that of the gas in chamber 25.

As the oil flows into and out of the chamber 23 during use of the pressure vessel to dampen shock waves in a pressure line, for example, the bladder 22 will contract and expand exerting tension on the wall thereof.

The gas under pressure in chamber 25 will react against the bead 27. However, since the pressure exteriorly of annular groove 34 is atmospheric and the gas pressure is much greater, the bead 27 will be further pressed against the junction 47 and wedged harder into such junction enhancing the tightness effect and ensuring that a dependable gas seal is maintained.

Any oil under pressure in chamber 23 that would tend to leak along the outer surface of the bladder Will react against the shoulder 32 provided by the lower edge of flange 31, which will insure an oil seal. Also, due to this reaction of the oil pressure against the shoulder 32, the outer surface of the flange portion of bead 31 will be further pressed against the adjacent wall of container 11.

It will be appreciated that due to the provision of the protruding annular flange on the single bead of the bladder, and the tightness effects thereof as explained above, said single bead will provide a depend-able gas and oil seal which shall not be impaired by tension on the wall of the bladder when the bladder expands.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different 'em'bodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A pressure vessel comprising a rigid hollow container having a mouth at one end and a port at the other end, a cover member positioned in the mouth of the container, said cover member having a port, means to securely retain said cover member in place, said cover member having a cylindrical portion extending into the container and having its outer surface transversely spaced from the wall of said container, said cylindrical portion having an annular groove in its outer surface, a flexible partition of resilient deformable material positioned in said container and intervening between said ports, said partition having an annular bead at its periphery positioned in said annular groove, the diameter of the periphery of said partition being slightly less than that of said cylindrical portion so that said annular bead will be securely retained in said annular groove, said bead having a laterally outward extending annular flange on its outer surface, of length approximately one-half the length of said head, the lower edge of said flange defining a relatively sharp step with respect to the outer surface of the partition material, the depth of said groove being slightly less than the transverse thickness of said bead at the flange portion thereof, where-by said flange portion will be under greater compression than the remaining portion of said sealing bead, the upper wall of said groove and the adjacent wall of said container defining a junction, said compressed flange being forced into said junction to define a seal.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,834,299 5/1958 Coifey 22067 2,877,801 3/1959 Mercier -1 138-30 2,886,064 5/1959 Mercier 138-30 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,296,751 5/1962 France.

157,131 11/1932 Switzerland.

THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner.

RAPHAEL H. SCHWARTZ, Examiner. 

